Analytical determination of nicotine in tobacco by supercritical fluid chromatography–ion mobility detection

Abstract A preliminary investigation using supercritical fluid chromatography–ion mobility detector (SFC–IMD) to analyze the nicotine contained in tobacco was carried out. Nicotine in commercially available cigarettes and tobacco leaves was extracted into chloroform and determined by an IMD after SFC separation. The detection limit was at the picogram level for nonselective monitoring and the subnanogram level for nicotine selective detection. This system provided a simple analytical method for the analysis of nicotine and other alkaloids in tobacco. Compared to currently utilized methods, the SFC–IMD provided advantages of high sensitivity, nicotine specific detection and lower instrumentation cost. The potential of combining online supercritical fluid extraction with SFC–IMD for analysis of alkaloids in tobacco was demonstrated.